In the scripture study class I have been attending, we just finished up the New Testament with the book of Revelation. Quite a bit of this writing of John concerns "war". As mortals, we generally rank war according to how many people leave this life/die. To us, the great tragedy is departure from our presence. (I wrote a blog in June of 2014 on the tragedy of war and our alternative.) To our Heavenly Father, the great tragedy is our departure from His presence which is actually done by our choice. For anyone who has ever deeply loved someone else, it is truly a tragedy to ponder that person choosing to leave you forever. The battle to cause our departure from our Heavenly Father began long before any of us came to this planet. One of God's children, Lucifer or Satan or the devil or whatever you want to call him, rebelled against God's ideas and plans and managed to convince a third of all God's children to agree with him. Hence, they all departed God's presence- were "cast out", but by their own choice. Nobody died as we consider it here because nobody yet had obtained a body of flesh and blood. All of us will eventually be resurrected, except for that third who never came to have a mortal body because of their choice. There will be another major "war" where, once again, Satan will attempt to convince even more of us that his ideas are better than God's so he ought to have the greater power. God has granted all of us our own right to choose; He forces no man to join Him or love Him.
In John's writings about his visions, he mentions those who support or worship the devil. Bruce R. McConkie explained a little about this: "Who worships the devil? An immediate and superficial reaction is: Why, no one, or at least scarcely anyone. But more mature reflection leads to the realization that just as the true worship of God consists in keeping his commandments, and in emulating those characteristics and attributes which He possesses, so to pursue a Godless course of rebellion against the truth, to revel in wickedness, and to live carnal and unclean lives is, in the very nature of things, to worship Satan." I did a series of blogs a couple of months ago, in April, enumerating specific characteristics we might pursue or avoid in order to follow, or worship, God. There are the very basic "Ten Commandments" but the scriptures contain a whole lot more information for anyone interested in following the course to be with God. A life time of study, prayer, and reflecting would not be enough to become perfected! It will take us an eternity. But how we spend our mortal life will have a serious bearing on our place in progression- "In my Father's house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you."
I'm sure I have mentioned before that the Lord says there are only two churches- His and the devil's. Churches as we label them are simply the world's categorizing, not God's. McConkie had this further explanation of that, "Bablyon the Great is the church of the devil. It is the world with all its evil and carnality, it is every organization of every kind, sort, and form- whether religious, civic, political, fraternal, or otherwise- which espouses a philosophy or promotes a cause which leads men away from salvation and toward the kingdoms of lesser glory in the eternal world." So, where do we go to church? It's our choice. We will end up where we're headed and with whom we are embracing.
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